Meat Loaf is set to make a guest appearance on ‘Bookaboo’, a new children’s TV show set to debut on CiTV in March. The singer will read the storybook ‘The Lamb Who Came To Dinner’ to a cartoon drumming puppy that the series is named after who, according to programme makers, needs to hear “a story a day or he just can’t play”. The Meat Loaf-featuring episode, which will be the first of 13 shows, will air on March 2. According to the Press Association the singer said of his forthcoming reading, “You need to have fun with reading and, if it’s scary, make them shiver under the covers. If it’s friendly and happy, make them feel fuzzy and warm.” Other celebrities who have recorded guest appearances on ‘Bookaboo’ include Amanda Holden, Al Murray, Mel C, Alesha Dixon and Fern Britton.

David Bowie has denied that he has a Twitter account, following reports that he was working on new material in Berlin, based on a Bowie Twitter imposter’s post. Bowie also reaffirmed that he would not be playing at this year’s Coachella festival, after it was rumoured that he was set to revive his Ziggy Stardust alter-ego for the US festival. A message at on Bowie’s official website, Davidbowie.com, read, “The story goes that David Bowie was in talks to perform his Ziggy Stardust album at the festival this year, the rumour really took hold and the ‘news’ was reported online around the globe and in the English press. “You may have already seen the denial over at NME.COM, but I’m sure the majority of you saw this tale for what it was anyway: poppycock! “However, we feel duty-bound to deny this particular story here too, lest members be fleeced of their hard-earned. “While we’re about it, David Bowie does not have a Twitter account.”

This set of heavily doctored Johnny Cash tunes almost succeeds as musical comedy. Pete Rock adds an electronic shuffle in an otherwise faithful sendup of “Folsom Prison Blues,” and the result is pleasantly goofy. And producer Philip Steir (No Doubt, Los Amigos Invisibles) amusingly inserts the fast-talking near-rap from Cash’s “Get Rhythm” into a bumpy disco-house mix. The thing is, this wasn’t intended as comedy — it’s a “tribute” executive-produced by Snoop Dogg and the late singer’s son, John Carter Cash. The most god-awful thing here comes from Alabama 3, the British novelty act responsible for the theme song to The Sopranos. Their contribution? The aptly titled “Leave That Junk Alone.”

Acid jazz/rare groove/eclectic dance pioneer Gilles Peterson chatted to Skrufff this week about his upcoming tenth anniversary show on Britain’s Radio 1 and revealed that he once got bumped off the decks after just ten minutes for playing Fela Kuti at a celebrity wedding. “I’m a terrible wedding DJ, I’m probably the worst DJ to invite to play at weddings; I’m just too serious,” Gilles confessed. “I remember playing at Peter Gabriel’s wedding in Sardinia for just a couple of hundred people. He had a private beach, Richard Branson was there and Phil Collins was performing and they had African music and so on. Then I had to DJ.” “I lasted something like ten minutes, when I suddenly heard different music than the record I was playing coming out of the speakers, they’d literally cut me off. The bride’s family, who were regular working class Irish people, had put their own cassette into the master mixer then faded me out – they ended up playing tracks like the вЂ?Birdie Song’. I still had a good time,” Gilles added. “Though Peter Gabriel was very, very embarrassed. And then I went home. It was fine,” he laughed. The wedding playlist would have proved no problem for Gilles’ French experimentalist counterpart Laurent Garnier who in 2001 boasted of owning not one but two copies of The Tweets’ early 80s classic. “When I’m really drunk with a few of my friends I love playing that shit,” Garnier told the London Standard. “Hey, I’m not embarrassed,” he added. “I’m proud of my ‘Grease’ and ‘Saturday Night Fever’ albums too.” Gilles had more wedding grief courtesy of fellow Londoner Norman Jay over the duo’s football rivalry. “Norman Jay is a good friend though he supports Tottenham Hotspur and I support Arsenal and we’re both quite well known for supporting these two teams and we both hate each other,” Gilles laughed. “I remember one day I found out that he had been DJing at (then Arsenal star) Thierry Henry’s wedding. I phoned Norman up and I nearly fell out with him after that. He hates Arsenal so much, but he still played at Thierry Henry’s wedding. That was the one party I would have died to play at. A big regret,” he chuckled.

It’s hard to believe that the duo of Aaron Freeman (aka Gene Ween) and Mickey Melchiondo (Dean Ween) has been together as cult indie rock act Ween for 25 years. Long before adult comedy rock acts like Tenacious D entertained a mainstream audience with its blend of operatic acoustic and heavy rock, this incredibly versatile duo from New Hope, Pennsylvania confounded, sometimes mildly offended but mostly won over legions of fans with a free-form blend of everything from the classifiable to the unclassifiable; they touched on heavy metal, glam rock, antipop, satire, drug-induced comedy rock, punk, country-ish grooves and more, all with relatively lo-fi production. Ween have released several live recordings over the years, including a few on its own label Chocodog, such as Live In Toronto, Canada and Live In Chicago, which focused on the bands’ 1996 and 2003 tours, respectively. The Cat’s Cradle, 1992 CD/DVD (co-released with MVD Audio), is “the brownest CD on the Chocodog label yet,” as Dean Ween said a few months back. Though Ween is now a band of five, this lost treasure of live performances captures the group arguably at its rawest and finest as a duo (occasional screwups aside), with help from live sound engineer Kirk Miller and a Yamaha DAT deck that substitutes for bass and drums. The audio centers on Ween’s 21-song performance at the Cat’s Cradle in North Carolina, while the home video that makes up the 17-song bonus DVD highlights stops in the Netherlands in 1991, as well as New Jersey and Ohio in 1992. Much of the setlists of both discs center around the duo’s first three records, God Ween Satan: The Oneness (1990), The Pod (1991), and Pure Guava (1992), which should thrill Ween’s older fans. Early gems include the classic rock-ish “Tick” and the glam rock of “Captain Fantasy.” Gene Ween yells his way through the metallic and short “You Fucked Up,” a song written about his “bitch” and during which Dean Ween slips in a Hendrix riff from “3rd Stone From The Sun.” The dreamy, laidback French pop of “Ode To Rene,” sung in French (until the f-bomb at song’s end) is another highlight from the audio disc, as is the outrageously funny and f-bomb-filled “Reggaejunkiejew.” Every fan knows of Ween’s drug-induced humor, but as the 45-minute live DVD shows, they write mind-altering ballads too, like “Don’t Laugh, I Love You,” which on video looks and sounds like the prettiest stoner love song George Harrison never wrote. Another must-see image is Dean Ween going berserk on his axe, going so far as to play and solo with a beer bottle near the end (in place of an actual bottleneck slide, I guess). Overall, this overdue release opens the vaults to loads of early live Ween gems, some rare, some raw. It represents the best - and in some instances, flaws - about Ween as a duo, before they evolved into a jam-friendly type of group. Never a band to take seriously or that takes themselves seriously, Ween knows how to make the most out of a two-man performance, and if you’re a major fan, you should seriously check this essential Cat’s Cradle CD/DVD out.

After the banner year in music that was 2007, I suppose it was inevitable that 2008 would be a let down. And it was. It's not that there wasn't any good music released this year; after all, I was able to come up with a full list of 20 (unlike with 2006, where I wimped out at ten). But there was a lack of greatness this year, with albums that rank very highly this year that would have ranked much lower the year previous. In fact, until I seriously started to think about how this list would shape up, many of the albums on it had failed to grab me throughout the year. In part, this has more to do with the fact that I spent the year listening to older music, but still, if I loved these albums like I loved the ones that topped last year's list, I would've taken notice much earlier. The result is a list where I'm more comfortable with the bottom half (20-11) than I am with the top half. Not because the albums at the bottom are better (if they were, they'd be higher on the list), but because those albums feel like 20-11-type albums, whereas the albums that place highly on this album don't really feel like high placing albums, but this year they are. Honourable Mentions: Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue, Gnarls Barkley - The Odd Couple, Tapes 'N Tapes - Walk It Off, The Stills - Oceans Will Rise, Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends 20. Q-Tip - The Renaissance: It's become tradition for me to include at least one hip-hop album in my year end lists, in a futile attempt to show that I listen to more than just indie rock. Former token representatives Common and Kanye West each released albums this year, and, well, let's just say neither contended for this list and leave it at that. Instead, Q-Tip makes his triumphant return to the world of hip-hop in the appropriately-named The Renaissance, his first album since 1999 (and first work of his I've paid attention to since A Tribe Called Quest's Beats, Rhymes and Life from 1996). If you've been missing that old Quest sound, rejoice that the Abstract has returned with an album that stacks up to some of the best that group had to offer, while staking out new territory for itself. 19. Cat Power - Jukebox: Normally, cover albums are the death of artistry, the final sign that a singer has nothing new to offer, and instead tosses out a bunch of standards, hoping people will still pay to hear them sing even after they've tired of listening to what they have to sing about. But in the case of Cat Power, real creativity is applied to the songs Chan Marshall decides to cover (it helps that they aren't all standards).

The Whigs, famous indie-rockers, have launched a tour in 2009 to promote their latest album ‘Mission Control.’ The tour began Jan 15 at Athens, GA and hits 17 cities before winding up on March 14 at St. Louis, MO. It visits cities like East Lansing, MI; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; Detroit, MI and Chicago, IL. Their performances include support from the band Drive By Truckers on Jan 15 for the Athens, GA show. All other shows in the month of January are accompanies by the band Kings of Leon. All the shows in March are solo performances by The Whigs. The recently released album Mission Control has been produced by Rob Schnapf (Elliot Smith, The Vines) and has been released on ATO Records, which also released their previous venture “Give ‘em All a Fat Lip.” The song “Right Hand on My Heart,” from this album is available at the band’s website. The Whigs 2009 Tour Dates 01/26/2009 - East Lansing, MI - Wharton Center at MSU (w/ Kings of Leon) 01/27/2009 - Columbus, OH - Lifestyle Communities Pavilion (w/ Kings of Leon) 01/29/2009 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden (w/ Kings of Leon) 03/04/2009 - Washington, DC - Black Cat 03/05/2009 - Philadelphia, PA - The Note 03/06/2009 - Boston, MA - Paradise 03/07/2009 - New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom 03/09/2009 - Columbus, OH - The Basement 03/10/2009 - Detroit, MI - Magic Stick 03/12/2009 - Indianapolis, IN - Birdy’s 03/13/2009 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge 03/14/2009 - St. Louis, MO - Fubar

When I first started my favorite albums of 2008 list, I didn't realize how difficult it would be. How difficult was it? Well, my list of honorable mentions has eight albums on it and there are three EP's I would include if this were not a list of albums. I also did not properly listen to some great 2007 releases until 2008. Thus, in the spirit of those re-releases record companies love, this is a Deluxe Edition of my favorite albums of 2008 list and is full of extras. As always, this list isn't ranked. Everything is presented in alphabetical order by artist name. Now, my 10 favorite albums of 2008: Black Milk – Tronic: I first noticed this producer/rapper from Detroit with an Internet release (see honorable mentions below) that came before this commercially released album. I didn't hear this album until only a month before 2008 ended but it left an impression on me. The production is top-notch, the lyrics pretty strong, and the guest appearances (what few there are) are solid. It's a great hip-hop album that deserves your attention. Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends: The best way for me to describe this album is audio comfort food. Excellent production, wonderful melodies, and pretty good songwriting lead to a very enjoyable album. From the celebratory atmosphere of “Viva La Vida” to the infectious beat of “Lost!” and the beauty of “Lovers in Japan,” there is a lot to like. While it may be reminiscent of a certain Irish rock band, I'd rather they acknowledge their influences instead of over thinking their music to mush. Girl Talk – Feed The Animals: It takes a lot of talent and skill to take artists as diverse as The Jackson Five, Lil Wayne, Nirvana, and The Beach Boys (among countless others) and merge them together into a great party album that's part mix and part mash-up. No matter what genre you enjoy most, there is something to like here. You'll never think of your favorite songs the same way after you finish listening to this. Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple: Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse's follow-up to St. Elsewhere doesn't have an instant crossover hit like “Crazy.” Instead, this album is a richer experience overall. Whether it's the haunting “Who's Gonna Save My Soul,” or the upbeat craziness of “Run,” there is just so much good stuff to be found here. While it's more of a pop album than their last one, it gets better with every listen. page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Since En Vogue was originally formed to recapture the spirit and sound of successful girl groups from the ‘60s such as The Supremes, it’s only fitting — amid the 2002 performance at Alabama State Fairgrounds in Birmingham that's captured on Live in the USA — that the women decide to “pay tribute to the divas that paved the way” for them.    As illustrated on this DVD, which was released on January 20, the group's deference extends to perfectionism, even after a lengthy history that has endured a revolving door of member shakeups, label changes, and popularity fluctuations. Such is evident even before the performance itself, as in rehearsal footage that finds veteran members Cindy Herron-Braggs and Terry Ellis along with then new (and now former) member Amanda Cole braving a chilly December morning (while battling jet lag following a long trip from Los Angeles) as they prepare to dazzle audiences. They discover that the biggest rehearsal space would be in the locker room shower of the stadium, the ladies of En Vogue remaining in their sweaters and hats, trying to master the group's complicated, signature movements and the concert's choreography (which they were taught during rehearsal just two days prior). As well, they practice their frequent lead vocal changes, designating who takes the front of the stage for a chorus or a solo spot.  The women of En Vogue appear refreshingly down-to-earth, despite an unparalleled legion of fans, including those who — like this reviewer — grew up with their many girl power anthems of the ‘90s. Their success not only deemed them as the most successful female group of that decade, but as Billboard Magazine reports, “the eighteenth most successful act of the 1990s” overall.   The film shows them easily adapting to machine mishaps during a sound check and ably handling everything in stride. Such is apparent right from their confident walk onstage, which finds the former “Funky Divas” trading in their slinky trademark black dresses for a more casual look of jeans and silk shirts. Of course, for fans of the group, it’s the all-too-brief 61-minute concert that will first grab your attention, as it intercuts the live performance, filmed in color, with black and white sound check photography and a little behind-the-scenes, candid preparation footage throughout.    However, MVDvisual and Charly Films ensure that viewers have an experience that goes beyond simply a concert.  Boasting 105 minutes of bonus material alone — such as the disc’s extensive, post-show focal point that includes interviews with Herron-Braggs (in which she discusses the group's history and the much publicized, rumor-filled departure of Dawn Robinson), Ellis, Cole, as well as the group's manager and producers.  Additionally, there’s also an extended backstage behind-the-scenes clip that goes more in-depth regarding their breakneck schedule as well as an admission by Herron-Braggs that the only time she has to balance her checkbook (which she does pen, calculator, and book in hand) is while on the road.   

Whether we realize it or not, we sometimes approach tribute albums a little sideways, sort of edging up to them while wondering if the artist will do justice to the original. I suppose it's a natural enough attitude to have, but it seems a little unfair if we judge them too quickly. Those thoughts were going through my mind as I began to listen to a new album from young songstress Jaimee Paul, now out on the Green Hill label. The album's title, At Last, serves immediate notice that she's taking on some powerful icons — they don't get much bigger than Etta James' timeless signature song. But this album is about more than one song, and the cover tells us that by listing the names of the thirteen legendary songbirds who virtually own the tunes Jaimee sings. It's worth noting that their status is such that even though only their first names are used, each one is immediately identifiable — Ella, Rosemary, Doris, and Lena, just to list a few. Jaimee's own background includes classical training on piano and french horn, but it's as a vocalist that she found her path to success. As a child she sang in her church choir, and gospel music continued to be a strength even as she reached adulthood but she then began branching out. Her latest performances have been as part of Wynonna Judd's show. Although Jaimee Paul might be a relatively new name this is actually her second album, but it's her first for a major label. It's a first-class production, with backup provided by one of Nashville's best groups, pianist Beegie Adair and her trio. Additional accompaniment is furnished by the Jeff Steinberg Orchestra, along with a rising young trumpeter (who also happens to be Jaimee's husband), Leif Shires. Jaimee certainly has the pipes to tackle the music of the legendary songbirds. She has a full, mature and smoky voice that's reminiscent of the era's singers, and she knows how to give us a fresh and pleasing take on a familiar piece while maintaining the spirit of the original. Listening to her on a song like "Fever," is naturally a little startling at times because Peggy Lee's classic is so familiar, but Jaimee's version sounds better with each play. The same could be said about her performances on Doris Day's "Sentimental Journey," or Judy Garland's "Over The Rainbow," both outstanding renditions. Those three were among my favorites but my top dog was probably  "What A Difference A Day Makes," given a little more of a Latin tilt than Dinah Washington's original. Also enjoyable were "Whatever Lola Wants," a Sarah Vaughan classic, and of course the title tune, "At Last" — and this is coming from a long-time Etta fan. Both songs feature full, lush orchestral arrangements that help build a perfect mood for the music. An outstanding collection of retro sounds from Jaimee Paul and her friends, well worth a listen.